Obedience: A Student Teacher Romantic Suspense (Ties That Bind Book 1) by Liza Snow ➱ Book Tour with Rafflecopter

 

Obedience

Ties That Bind Book 1

by Liza Snow

Genre: Romantic Suspense 

Cassandra

Growing up, I was mesmerized by a man soaring the skies.

The greatest silk aerialist in the world, Chandler Moreau.

The day before my parents died, they took me to see his circus, and it was then I knew my fate was sealed.

I would do everything in my power to perform with them one day.

To perform with him.

Little did I realize, he would be far more than I’d ever imagined him being.

Far more than just a mentor.

He was a man I didn’t want to live without.

And someone I wanted to keep safe from a past that seemed to keep following me.

Chandler

My entire career, I’d been waiting for the right student to take under my wing.

A protégé with whom I could share my lifelong journey in the circus.

Little did I know it would be Cassandra Blackstone.

A woman who'd grown up admiring me from afar.

I never intended to fall in love with the student I was supposed to protect—from myself and the demons that lurked in my shadows.

But sometimes fate has other plans.

My grandfather's taunting words still linger.

Mieux vaut plier que rompre.

Adapt and survive.

They weren’t just his adage but also unmistakably true.

A reminder that Cassandra and my shared history seemed to intertwine us more than the silks we’d spent our lives mastering ever could…

More to Love:
In addition to the paperback, Obedience is also available in a full-cast narrated audiobook, starring Daniel Zbel and Rapunzaroo, along with a cast of additional voiceover actresses. Brought to life in the way the story is meant to be told, and it will be the best audiobook you listen to this year—possibly for a very long time. You’ll love listening to the two voices of these iconic characters. And don’t forget to read along with them and enjoy a fantastic, immersive experience. You’ll need the paperback copy to fan yourself off from some of the narration!

Amazon * Audible* Goodreads

This is SLIGHTLY longer I apologize but I didn’t want to cut it, and it’s probably one of my favorite parts of the whole book: 

Here’s the audio for it too from the audiobook: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VugDTkmu5vzosO75cXb4n3Xpah6VmMtr/view?usp=share_link

 

I hadn’t needed to prompt her. She began, pulling herself upward, drawing those silks around her small frame as she went. Climbing high into the air as the two women began their duet. The French lyrics pulled me in every time. It was perhaps one of the reasons that while I simply tolerated most opera songs I’d heard, I adored this song.

Every time I heard it, every time I got lost in those little nuances of the language, it brought me back to summertime in Melun, France. Playing on the hills overlooking the city, lost in the grasses filled with wildflowers. Climbing into Meme’s apple trees. Perhaps the time in my life when it had felt so simple. All there were, were the memories of when I’d been happy.

And if there was any place I wanted to be, as I watched Cassandra ascending above me, knowing in seconds I would be right beside her, it was in those memories again. Bringing her with me.

The first stanza finished, and my mind immediately centered. My hands had already been wrapped in the silks without having to think about it. She paused, and I saw her attention drift downward. We fell captive to one another, and it was all I needed to see. I knew it was my turn to go to her. She was waiting for me.

In the same fashion she had moments earlier, I began my way up the silks beside hers, which had been a deep royal purple color. The entire time I made my way high into the room, I immersed myself in the French lyrics, the strings complimenting every rise and fall of the two women’s voices. Some moments, I’d lose myself in what I was doing, taking careful note of all the little adjustments my body was making. Other times, my attention drifted upward. Until finally, I was just beneath Cassandra.

When I paused again, I took a few deep breaths, steadying myself. Focused entirely on the beautiful woman above me, who was just as attentive to me. I nodded to her, signaling I was ready, prepared to follow her in whatever she had thought to do next.

At the precise moment when I had met her, she had already begun moving herself into a sailor pose above me, legs splitting, and much to my satisfaction, every single part of her in perfect position. All the small details I’d shown her the first lesson we’d had together were as pristine as when I’d helped her myself.

I would have taken more time to truly enjoy how proud of her I felt if she hadn’t twisted downward, dropping her torso straight toward me in a graceful fall. Before she’d completed it, I knew what she’d done. A Rainbow Marchenko. A famous move of Jeanne’s for many years. But watching her as she settled into it, I would have thought it was hers alone.

Cassandra’s hands dropped, releasing the silks. Dangling inches away. The only thing holding her in the air was the precise folds of those green fabrics wrapped around her legs.

Looking into her eyes as she hung there, waiting for me to act, all I could do was smile. She’d been focused, lost in her own world, but she’d come back to me. We were together again in the very place I had wanted to be with her ever since I’d seen her flying through the silks at her audition. I had dreamt about it every time since, every lesson we had, every time I’d watched her from the shadows of the theater while she practiced.

I had taken her to those fields in Melun with me, high in the trees. Trapped us both in those treasured memories, made all the better knowing she was there. 

“I’ve got you, Cassandra,” I called out to her, gently. Steadying myself, my body locked in place. Breathing slow and rhythmic and calm. I watched her take the same breath as I had, waiting for the little drop in the lyrics before the next few lines began.

The moment their voices bellowed into the theater again, she let herself drop in a salto. In a gentle sweep of my body, I caught her gracefully into my arms. Twisted us together, letting the silks take hold of the two of us as we swung across the room, dozens of feet above the stage below us. Falling like two feathers locked together, dancing into the wind.

When the fabrics released us, I swung us outward. Our bodies drifted apart again as she spun around me, both of us still descending toward the floor. As beautiful as she looked, circling outward away from me, the moment she had, I wanted her back. I used my legs to give myself enough momentum to swing forward, latching on again once she’d appeared.

Cassandra had been so close I’d felt her breath against my face while we dangled above the stage. I got lost in the way it felt to be tangled up with her, a mess of bodies and fabric. Consumed by it. Convinced I might never let go of her again.

As we’d traversed the rest of the way back to the stage, I didn’t. The two of us descended together as a singular unit, just her and I and the fabrics. Improvising the graceful fall we were doing, finding little tricks and motions to carry out, all the while never leaving her side.

We’d both reached the floor, perfectly in sync with one another. I heard a gentle thump as we landed. Followed by the sound of both of our light, audible breaths. Steadying ourselves back on the ground.

Even having left the air, the silks still wrapped around us. Neither of us had freed ourselves. Cassandra was still in my arms, something I realized, when I hadn’t been so caught up in what we were doing all those feet above us, was happening for the very first time. 

The sweet smell of oranges overwhelmed me. Her beautiful hazel eyes, those captivating flecks of grays and greens and browns, drowned out the world around us. I watched her breathing softly, holding her to me and those silks holding me to her. 

And in those next few moments, every single solitary thing keeping me from her since the day we had met no longer existed in the little reality we were trapped in. Every fear I had, every reservation, disappeared. I tightened her to me, my hands capturing the sides of her face in a gentle sweep, as elegant as every other thing we’d done those last few minutes.

Our mouths fell together, and I lost myself in her. Trapped in those profound and so unbelievably relieving seconds in which the things that had stood in our way no longer mattered. 

I hadn’t thought anything could have surpassed the experience the two of us just shared. Undeniably, it had been the best minutes I had ever spent in those silks in my entire career. As simple as it had been. And we had barely started. This was only the beginning.

But this moment now was just as wonderful. As perfect as I could have hoped.

Audiobook Excerpt: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pFWlXysA0Smd9yZX9nYnGi0i1DXruyDN/view?usp=share_link

Despite having already told myself not to, I took a step toward her, closing the small gap between us. I felt overcome with an intense need to give in now that we both knew. To let this insane obsession I had with her have its way. Even if it was wrong. 

   What stopped me wasn’t the fact that I was her mentor and we’d be breaking rules. Wasn’t that I was older than her. None of the superficial, obvious reasons mattered. It was all the other lingering things within my life. Things no one knew. Secrets I carried on my own, for good reason.

  My desire to protect her from that was what had stopped me in my tracks.

It hadn’t been enough, though. Not after Cassandra broke me from my thoughts with a singular question that would change everything. “Why did you get into Shibari, anyway?”

  I looked up to her again. In an instant, I was lost in her gaze. Trapped there in all those captivating flecks of color. The greens and browns and grays. Truthfully, I could have just answered. Probably said absolutely anything at all, and it likely would have satisfied her.

  But it wouldn’t have been enough. Not now. My desires had taken control again.

  “Can I show you?” 

+ 1 steamy but still mostly PG-13 excerpt in case you want it (this is a milder one but we pride ourselves for our audiobook having the best steamy scenes!!!)

Audio Excerpt: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1of-2p053CZQA3NzDexFQhdpEp7zYzLYQ/view?usp=share_link

“We certainly don’t need you turning into a rebellious heathen, Ms. Blackstone.” The look he was giving me, the subtle shift in his tone, having grown deeper with his air of authority—I lived for moments like this. 

I got up too. Leaned into the desk a bit, eyes locked on him. With one swift sweep of my hand, I sent the neatly stacked pile of papers I assumed were students' homework assignments flying off his desk.

The growl that came from the man seconds after I’d acted was the best thing that had happened all day. At least, I thought it was until the whole act continued. 

“You know I don’t like messes, Ms. Blackstone,” he said, fiercely. He was ripping into me with his glare, and I ate every second of it up.

“That’s unfortunate, Professor Moreau. Because I seemed to have made one.” While I was speaking, I watched him move around his desk. In dangerous pursuit, like he was a lion on a hunt for the gazelle he’d spotted in the grass. 

Instead of waiting for him to get to me like I would have normally done, I decided to surprise him. Swiftly, I turned, darting toward his office door like I’d been making an attempt to escape him. Which, I was pleasantly surprised, got the exact reaction I’d wanted.

His pace quickened behind me. By the time I’d reached the door and started to open it, he’d gotten to me, slamming himself into me and the door, pressing firmly into my body. I was trapped, locked in place between the door and the ravenous man behind me.

I felt his hands wrap around my wrists, drawing my arms above me. His mouth came to the side of my head, his voice growling low into my ear. 

“Ms. Blackstone. Did you really think you were going to get away from me that easily?” He leaned down, and I felt his mouth on my neck, biting down roughly against me. It was actually a little painful, but I sunk into it, gasping and writhing beneath him helplessly. His mouth came back to my ear, “I believe you and I have some things to take care of first. Consequences for the little act of yours.”

“Are you going to punish me?” I managed to reply, feeling his body tremble slightly behind me when I said it. The response got a little smirk from me. “Because I’ve been feeling very defiant lately, Professor Moreau. I think you might need to fix that.” 

My words must have ignited him because, in one swift motion, he released my hands, and I felt his fall to wrap around my hips. He swung us both around, nearly carrying me off the ground until I’d been pushed roughly up into his desk.

His hands released from me, only to press firmly into my upper back until he bent my upper torso forward. I planted straight into the cool wood of the top of his desk, gasping when I did. My hands fell on either side of me, and my head tilted to the side. In my peripheral vision, I saw his profile.

Only a few seconds had passed, and he had spent the entire time roughly drawing my pants down my legs. My entire lower half was lying naked in front of him in his office. I could see those intense green eyes of his drilling into me like usual. Waited, my heart thudding in my chest, for him to do anything at all.

It was an agonizingly long wait. Almost enough time that I’d started to inquire. But then I felt his fingers rake over the skin of my backside roughly. I gasped when he did, writhing on top of the desk.

“Are you going to apologize for your behavior, Ms. Blackstone?” He asked me. He sounded so fierce and authoritative, switching from the former lower tone he’d had.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Professor Moreau,” I replied innocently as his fingers left me. 

Before I had one solitary second to think, his hand came firmly down. The sound of it was so loud it reverberated around the room, followed by a loud gasp from me. It stung so intensely for those first few seconds my head spun.

“Care to try again?” He asked. I jumped in surprise when his fingers fell back onto my skin, gently drawing against where his hand had landed. Like he’d been soothing the injury.

Though it had hurt, the intensity of the heat shooting down my legs was absolutely surreal. I was trembling a little from it, finding myself suddenly addicted to this new little power-play game we were locked in. There wasn’t any way in hell I was ending this. Not yet.

“No, thank you,” I replied, swiftly. This time, the consequence of my words didn’t happen immediately. He had removed his fingers from me. And I laid there, each second growing more and more agonizing.

It came from nowhere. When I had least expected it to. And again, the searing sting of it was teetering on the edge of being almost too much, but I sunk into it after. Enjoying the after-effects of it far too much to care. My entire body was absolutely wrecked with desire.

His fingers resumed again, attending to where he’d lashed out at me. I sunk into the feeling for a few seconds. He dropped his hands again, backing a few steps away from me. It took me a second to realize he had, and eventually, I looked over my head back at him, wondering what he was doing now.

“Get on your knees, Ms. Blackstone,” he said, eyes on me again. “I want to watch you clean up the mess you made. Feel as dirty as you made my floor.”

A bestselling independent author from Florida, Liza has been putting romance books into her readers hands for over a half decade, and has loved every minute of it.

Liza lives with her husband, her two dogs and her cat, ten minutes from the beach. When she isn't writing, you can often find her walking and enjoying outside, with a coffee and a book in hand.

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